Photo by William P. Gottlieb (public domain)
Charlie Parker
Alto Saxophone · born 29 August 1920 – died 12 March 1955
▸ Click for Richard Cook Bio
If any one individual personifies a romantic idea of jazz – in his instrumental prowess, creativity and brutal destiny – it is Charles Parker, often called 'Bird' or 'Yardbird', saxophonist, narcotics addict and wayward genius of a music which seemed to almost burn out with him. Parker was born in Kansas City and left school at 15, already determined to become a full-time musician. He played at jam sessions and in unremarkable local groups until visiting New York in 1939 and staying for something like a year before returning to Kansas City, armed at least with jam-session experience. He then joined Jay McShann's band, with whom he made his first recordings ('Listen to the Bird blow!' recalled McShann, more than 60 years later) and from there he moved on, in late 1942, to Earl Hines's orchestra, and thence to the Billy Eckstine big band. During this period he was one of the participants in the Minton's Playhouse jam sessions which were effectively the crucible of bebop. By the time 1945 was under way, Parker had all the constituent parts of his style in place.
Although Parker did in some ways advance his art as time went on, he shares with many of the other jazz innovators – including Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, Ornette Coleman and Albert Ayler – a sense that he quickly understood what he had to say and wasted no time in saying it. He introduced such formal breakthroughs as improvising off the top of the chord sequence of a standard melody (something he repeatedly realized while jamming on Ray Noble's tune Cherokee), but the matter of his musicianship was at once more subtle and more upfront than that. He made everything seem inevitable, even simple, although what he was doing was immensely sophisticated in comparison with most of his contemporaries. While Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk had toiled towards the formal innovations of bebop during those countless hours of jamming and thinking and talking at Minton's, Parker came along and grasped the verities and played through them at the drop of a proverbial hat. His many hours of practice disguised his facility to a degree, but by the time of his coming out, his saxophone tone had matured and hardened into a fearsomely confrontational sound: even though he was often recorded in less than ideal conditions during his career, it is remarkable how his saxophone sound cuts through even the worst of low fidelity. It is this aspect of his playing, more than any other, which has kept his music alive to a modern audience: a single phrase from Parker's saxophone can erase the passage of decades by virtue of its vivid, seemingly immortal immediacy.
For all his individuality of timbre, though, it is Parker's rhythmic language which is most startling and enduring. Harmonically, he works from a relatively limited base: as with many of the leading boppers, he was content to work mostly from a handful of familiar chord sequences as the model of his 'original' compositions. But his rhythmic imagination seemed limitless. In moving so comprehensively away from the simple four- and eight-bar divisions which tended to be the swing improviser's grammar, he introduced a fabulous complexity which required exceptional resources to master. Melody lines might be compressed, stretched, ornamented or otherwise made new, bursts of notes could be followed by unexpected rests, accents would fall in unlikely places. In some ways, Bird was the ultimate lick-player: the Parker scholar Thomas Owens has identified how he kept something like 100 formulae under his fingertips, phrase-shapes and patterns which he would refer to across the course of an improvisation, each one subject to the continuous variation which is the improviser's prerogative, and defence against predictability.
All this emerges in his body of recorded work, which can almost be divided down the middle, between his studio sessions – in the main, three corpuses of work for the Savoy, Dial and Clef (subsequently Verve) labels – and a huge number of live recordings, which more than doubles the size of his studio legacy. The Savoy and Dial material exists mostly in multiple takes of each tune, revealing further Parker's abilities to vary his approach. The band sessions featured such playing partners as Miles Davis, Max Roach, Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee and Duke Jordan, but Parker's genius dominates every record. The Dial contract arose out of the trip Parker and Gillespie made to the West Coast at the end of 1945: although Gillespie eventually returned East, Parker stayed in Los Angeles. By this time, he had been addicted to heroin for some time, and had developed a gargantuan appetite for excess: drugs and alcohol dominated every day, yet miraculously seemed to have little effect – at this stage – on his capacity to play, which led some to believe that Parker's example was to be followed to achieve the right state to play the music in, a disastrous idea which ruined many lives. Matters came to a head at the notorious record date which produced the tortured Lover Man, after which Parker collapsed. He was confined at Camarillo State Hospital and emerged in 1947, eventually returning to New York, where he formed the quintet with Davis (who in later years had very little good to say about Parker).
Between then and 1951 Parker enjoyed his greatest years of success. He was feted as the master of his idiom, a club was opened in his name (Birdland), he signed to Norman Granz's operation and made records with strings and Latin groups, and he visited Europe in 1949 and 1950. His playing survives in numerous broadcast and unauthorized recordings, including many taken down by an obsessive fan, Dean Benedetti, who haunted backstage areas and recorded Bird on a portable machine (the surviving discs were eventually recovered from the Benedetti family and issued in the 80s in a Mosaic edition). There were new studio encounters with Gillespie and Monk (a memorable date from 1950), and though some felt that Granz tried to prettify Parker's music in the wrong way, few would quibble with much of his playing on the best of the Clef sessions. But his problems with narcotics began to drag him down: his cabaret licence was revoked in 1951, banning him from playing in New York, and he was kept from the city's club scene until late in 1953. There was still wonderful music to come – a celebrated concert at Toronto's Massey Hall in 1953, to cite one occasion – and there are hints in his later work of how he might have addressed the further evolution of his own playing. But debts and an alcohol problem which was probably even worse than his narcotics addiction wore him down. He was committed to Bellevue Hospital in 1954 at his own request following a suicide attempt, and played his final gig in March 1955, dying a few days later at the home of Nica de Koenigswarter. The eventual cause of death was lobar pneumonia, but his bloated body was wrecked in any case: his coffin was so heavy that the pallbearers at his funeral almost dropped it.
The wonder of Parker's music is that it still sounds modern, 50 years after his death. He died before the LP era had got fully under way, and one can only guess at what he might have done with the long form of the album: 'I can definitely say that music won't stop. It will continue to go forward,' he told an interviewer late in his life. For many, the playing in Scrapple From The Apple, Parker's Mood, Now's The Time, Ah-Leu-Cha, Bluebird, Bird Gets The Worm, A Night In Tunisia and so many others is as far forward as jazz music will ever get.
Biography from Richard Cook's Jazz Encyclopedia (2005).
If you'd like more information, check out The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz (2002) or The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz (2007), both of which are still in print.
As leader
Charlie Parker – Bird at St. Nick’s
Plays on
Miles Davis – Collectors’ Items
The Quintet – Jazz at Massey Hall
Mentioned in text
Stan Kenton – City of Glass
Dizzy Gillespie – Afro
Lee Konitz – With Warne Marsh
Tony Fruscella – Tony Fruscella
Jimmy Giuffre – Tangents in Jazz
Serge Chaloff – Boston Blow-Up!
Buck Clayton – Jumpin’ at the Woodside
Clifford Brown / Max Roach – Brown and Roach Incorporated
Clifford Brown and Max Roach – Study in Brown
Cannonball Adderley – Julian Cannonball Adderley
Gerry Mulligan – California Concerts
Miles Davis – All-Stars Vol. 1
Billy Taylor – A Touch of Taylor
Lee Konitz – Subconscious-Lee
Modern Jazz Quartet – Concorde
Miles Davis – The Musings of Miles
Wardell Gray – Memorial, Volume One
Kenny Clarke – Bohemia After Dark
Cannonball Adderley – Presenting Cannonball
Nat Adderley – That’s Nat
Billy Taylor – Evergreens
Kenny Dorham – And the Jazz Prophets, Volume One
Lennie Tristano – Lennie Tristano
Phineas Newborn Jr. – Here is Phineas
Charles Mingus – Pithecanthropus Erectus
Jimmy Giuffre – The Jimmy Giuffre Clarinet
Bud Powell – The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume One
Jay Jay Johnson – The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Volume One
Jay Jay Johnson – The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Volume Two
The Jazz Messengers – At the Café Bohemia, Volume One
The Jazz Messengers – At the Café Bohemia, Volume Two
Jimmy Smith – A New Sound, A New Star, Volume One
Jimmy Smith – A New Sound, A New Star, Volume Two
Herbie Nichols – Herbie Nichols Trio
Art Blakey – A Night At Birdland, Volume One
Art Blakey – A Night At Birdland, Volume Two
Jimmy Smith – At The Organ, Volume Three
Zoot Sims – The Modern Art of Jazz
Dexter Gordon – Blows Hot and Cool
Cannonball Adderley – In the Land of Hi-Fi
Red Rodney Quintet – Modern Music from Chicago
Brew Moore – The Brew Moore Quintet
Various Artists – The Jazz Giants ’56
Modern Jazz Sextet – The Modern Jazz Sextet
Bud Powell – Piano Interpretations
Bud Shank – The Bud Shank Quartet
Wardell Gray – Memorial, Volume Two
James Moody – Hi Fi Party
Miles Davis – Dig
Various Artists – Conception
Phil Woods – Woodlore
Sanford Gold – Piano D’or
Elmo Hope – Hope Meets Foster
Sonny Stitt – Sonny Stitt with Bud Powell and J.J. Johnson
Thelonious Monk – Thelonious Monk Trio
Sonny Rollins – With the Modern Jazz Quartet
Kai and Jay / Bennie Green – With Strings
George Wallington – Jazz for the Carriage Trade
Jon Eardley – Jon Eardley Seven
Miles Davis / Milt Jackson – Quintet / Sextet
Jackie McLean Quintet – Lights Out!
Earl Coleman – Earl Coleman Returns
Phil Woods Septet – Pairing Off
Sonny Rollins Quartet – Tenor Madness
Jackie McLean – 4, 5, and 6
Gene Ammons – All-Star Sessions
Billy Taylor Trio – With Cándido
Bennie Green – Blows His Horn
Thelonious Monk – Monk
Hank Mobley – Mobley’s Message
Sonny Stitt – Plays Arrangements from the Pen of Quincy Jones
Sonny Stitt – Sonny Stitt Plays
Dexter Gordon – Daddy Plays the Horn
Billy Taylor – Introduces Ira Sullivan
Lucky Thompson & Oscar Pettiford – Vol. 2
Lars Gullin – Baritone Sax
Jimmy Giuffre – The Jimmy Giuffre 3
Lee Konitz – Inside Hi-Fi
Charles Mingus – The Clown
Modern Jazz Quartet – Modern Jazz Quartet
Charles Mingus – East Coasting
Kenny Dorham – Afro-Cuban
J.R. Monterose – J.R. Monterose
Lou Donaldson – Quartet Quintet Sextet
Lee Morgan – Indeed!
Horace Silver – 6 Pieces of Silver
Sonny Rollins – Sonny Rollins, Volume One
Hank Mobley – And His All Stars
Lou Donaldson Quintet – Wailing With Lou
Thad Jones – The Magnificent Thad Jones, Volume Three
Cliff Jordan / John Gilmore – Blowing In From Chicago
Art Blakey – Orgy in Rhythm, Volume One
Sonny Rollins – Sonny Rollins, Volume Two
Sabú – Palo Congo
Paul Chambers – Bass On Top
Bud Powell – Bud! The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume Three
Miles Davis – Birth of the Cool
Harry Edison and his Orchestra – Sweets
J.J. Johnson – J is for Jazz
Miles Davis – ‘Round About Midnight
Don Byrd / Gigi Gryce – Jazz Lab
J.J. Johnson – First Place
Dave Brubeck Quartet – Jazz Goes to Junior College
The Jazz Messengers – Hard Bop
Miles Davis – Miles Ahead
Sonny Rollins – Way Out West
Curtis Counce – You Get More Bounce With Curtis Counce
Al Cohn Quintet – Al and Zoot
Al Cohn – Cohn on the Saxophone
Zoot Sims – Goes to Jazzville
Max Roach – Plus Four
Clifford Brown – Clifford Brown All-Stars
Horace Silver – Silver’s Blue
Warne Marsh – Jazz of Two Cities
Charles Mingus – Charles Mingus Trio
Pepper Adams – Pepper Adams Quintet
Bud Shank – Jazz at Cal-Tech
Bud Shank – Bud Shank Quartet
Bob Brookmeyer Quintet – Traditionalism Revisited
Chet Baker – Chet Baker Big Band
Gil Mellé – Gil’s Guests
Red Garland Trio – A Garland of Red
Freddie Redd / Hamp Hawes – Piano East / Piano West
Jackie McLean Quintet – Jackie’s Pal
Prestige All-Stars – All Night Long
Hank Mobley / Al Cohn / John Coltrane / Zoot Sims – Tenor Conclave
Thelonious Monk / Sonny Rollins – Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins
Sonny Stitt – Kaleidoscope
Sonny Rollins – Saxophone Colossus
Phil Woods / Donald Byrd – The Young Bloods
Hank Mobley Quintet – Mobley’s 2nd Message
Thad Jones / Frank Wess / Teddy Charles / Mal Waldron / Doug Watkins / Elvin Jones – Olio
Art Farmer – When Farmer Met Gryce
Kenny Burrell – Kenny Burrell
Mose Allison – Back Country Suite
Miles Davis Quintet – Cookin’
Sonny Rollins – Rollins Plays for Bird
Ray Bryant Trio – Piano Piano Piano
Herbie Mann – Flute Soufflé
Paul Quinichette – On the Sunny Side
Curtis Fuller – New Trombone
Miles Davis – Bags Groove
Gene Ammons – Jammin’ In Hi Fi
Phil Woods / Gene Quill – Phil Woods & Gene Quill with Prestige
Phil Woods / Gene Quill / Sahib Shihab / Hal Stein – Four Altos
Al Cohn / Zoot Sims – From A to Z
George Russell – Jazz Workshop
Bud Powell Trio – Strictly Powell
Matthew Gee – Jazz by Gee
Ernie Henry – Presenting Ernie Henry
Bill Evans – New Jazz Conceptions
Kenny Drew – Kenny Drew Trio
Gigi Gryce – Jazz Lab Quintet
Thelonious Monk – Thelonious Himself
Clark Terry – Serenade to a Bus Seat
Kenny Dorham – Jazz Contrasts
Sonny Rollins – The Sound of Sonny
Thelonious Monk – Monk’s Music
Thelonious Monk – Mulligan Meets Monk
Cecil Payne – Cecil Payne
Tal Farlow – The Swinging Guitar of Tal Farlow
Billy Taylor – The New Billy Taylor Trio
Lee Konitz – The Real Lee Konitz
Teddy Charles – Word From Bird
George Wallington – Knight Music
Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers – With Thelonious Monk
Warne Marsh – Warne Marsh
Jimmy Smith – At The Organ, Volume One
Jimmy Smith – At The Organ, Volume Two
Hank Mobley Sextet – Hank
Paul Chambers – Paul Chambers Quintet
Cliff Jordan – Cliff Jordan
Lou Donaldson Quintet – Swing and Soul
Hank Mobley – Hank Mobley
Sonny Clark – Dial “S” For Sonny
John Jenkins / Kenny Burrell – John Jenkins with Kenny Burrell
Lee Morgan – City Lights
Lee Morgan – The Cooker
Sonny Rollins – A Night at the Village Vanguard
Cliff Jordan – Cliff Craft
Louis Smith – Here Comes Louis Smith
Bennie Green – Back on the Scene
Sonny Clark – Cool Struttin’
Lou Donaldson – Lou Takes Off
Cannonball Adderley – Somethin’ Else
Bud Powell – Time Waits: The Amazing Bud Powell, Volume Four
Miles Davis – Milestones
Red Mitchell – Presenting Red Mitchell
Leroy Vinnegar Sextet – Leroy Walks!
Hampton Hawes Quartet – All Night Session! Vols. 1-3
Bill Holman – The Fabulous Bill Holman
George Wallington Quintet – The Prestidigitator
Max Roach + 4 – On the Chicago Scene
Phil Woods – Warm Woods
Jackie McLean / John Jenkins – Alto Madness
Kenny Burrell / Jimmy Raney – 2 Guitars
John Coltrane – Traneing In
Steve Lacy – Soprano Sax
Sonny Rollins – Tour De Force
Paul Quinichette – For Basie
King Pleasure Sings / Annie Ross Sings
Miles Davis Quintet – Relaxin’
Red Garland Quintet – All Mornin’ Long
Sonny Stitt – Stitt’s Bits
Tommy Flanagan – Overseas
Hal McKusick – Triple Exposure
Mose Allison – Young Man Mose
Tiny Grimes with Coleman Hawkins – Blues Groove
Red Garland Trio – Manteca
Dorothy Ashby – Hip Harp
Tiny Grimes & J.C. Higginbotham – Callin’ The Blues
Prestige Blues-Swingers – Outskirts of Town
Various Artists – Blues for Tomorrow
Freddy Redd Trio – San Francisco Suite for Jazz Trio
Wilbur Ware – The Chicago Sound
Johnny Griffin – Johnny Griffin Sextet
Max Roach – Deeds, Not Words
Lee Konitz – Very Cool
Harry Edison – Gee, Baby Ain’t I Good To You
Bud Powell Trio – Blues in the Closet
Ornette Coleman – The Shape of Jazz to Come
Jimmy Smith – The Sounds of Jimmy Smith
Lou Donaldson – Blues Walk
Jimmy Smith – House Party
Art Blakey – Holiday for Skins, Volume 1
Art Blakey – Holiday for Skins, Volume 2
Bud Powell – The Scene Changes
Lou Donaldson with The Three Sounds – LD+3
Jackie McLean – New Soil
Charles Mingus – Mingus Ah Um
Cecil Taylor Quartet – Looking Ahead!
Sonny Rollins – And the Contemporary Leaders
Ornette Coleman – Tomorrow is the Question!
John Coltrane – Soultrane
Cannonball Adderley & Milt Jackson – Things Are Getting Better
Johnny Griffin – The Little Giant
Young Men from Memphis – Down Home Reunion
Curtis Fuller – Sliding Easy
Lester Young – Pres and Teddy
Ramsey Lewis Trio – In Chicago
Charles Mingus – Blues & Roots
Ornette Coleman – Change of the Century
Walter Davis, Jr. – Davis Cup
Donald Byrd – Byrd in Hand
The Three Sounds – Good Deal
Jackie McLean – Swing Swang Swingin’
Lou Donaldson – The Time is Right
Freddie Redd Quartet – Music from The Connection
Hank Mobley – Soul Station
Sonny Red – Out of the Blue
Jackie McLean – Capuchin Swing
Freddie Hubbard – Open Sesame
Tina Brooks – True Blue
Harold Land – The Fox
Eric Dolphy – Outward Bound
Wes Montgomery Trio – Wes Montgomery Trio
Wes Montgomery – The Incredible Jazz Guitar of Wes Montgomery
Blue Mitchell – Blue’s Moods
John Coltrane – Giant Steps
Lee Morgan – Lee-Way
Lou Donaldson – Sunny Side Up
Benny Bailey – Big Brass
Thelonious Monk – With John Coltrane
J.J. Johnson / Kai Winding – The Great Kai & J.J.
John Coltrane Quartet – Africa/Brass
Max Roach – Percussion Bitter Sweet
Ray Charles – Genius + Soul = Jazz
John Coltrane – Coltrane Plays the Blues
Art Pepper Quintet – Smack Up
Eric Dolphy – Far Cry
Paul Desmond / Gerry Mulligan – Two of a Mind
Benny Carter and His Orchestra – Further Definitions
Jackie Paris – The Song is Paris
Max Roach Chorus and Orchestra – It’s Time
Thelonious Monk Quartet – Monk’s Dream
Bill Evans – Interplay
Charles Mingus – Town Hall Concert, 1964
Clark Terry – The Happy Horns of Clark Terry
Dexter Gordon – One Flight Up
Shelly Manne – Boss Sounds!
Zoot Sims – Waiting Game
Cannonball Adderley – 74 Miles Away
Johnny Hodges – Triple Play
Chico Hamilton – The Dealer
Miles Davis – And the Modern Jazz Giants
Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
Richard Davis – Epistrophy & Now’s The Time
Miles Davis – Get Up With It
Clifford Jordan Quartet – Night of the Mark VII
Dexter Gordon – Homecoming: Live at the Village Vanguard
Don Cherry – Brown Rice
Tommy Flanagan – Ballads & Blues
Richard Davis – Way Out West